1. Field of the Disclosure
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method and apparatus for selecting a communication method in an electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of information and communication technology and semiconductor technology, various kinds of electronic devices are developing into multimedia devices being capable of providing various multimedia services. For example, the electronic devices provide various multimedia services such as a messenger service, a broadcasting service, a wireless Internet service, a camera service, and a music replay service.
Such electronic devices can be connected with an external electronic device via various wireless communications such as Bluetooth (BT), WiFi-direct, etc. For example, compared with the WiFi communication method, the Bluetooth communication method has a relatively narrow communication range and low data transmission and reception speed, but has the advantage of low power consumption. On the contrary, compared with the Bluetooth communication method, the WiFi communication method has a relatively wide communication range and high data transmission and reception speed, but has the disadvantage of high power consumption. Accordingly, electronic devices, particularly battery-operated electronic devices, may use a communication method that consumes less power (for example, the Bluetooth communication method) to communicate with an external electronic device at a short distance. When the electronic device is a relatively further distance from the external electronic device, the electronic device may maintain a communication connection with the external electronic device by switching to a communication method that consumes more power but has a wider communication range and higher data transmission and reception speed (for example, the WiFi communication method).
The electronic device may switch to a communication method according to a communication condition such as communication signal strength, a communication error rate, a band width (BW), etc. In this case, the electronic device may not consider state information of the electronic device, such as power consumption, a remaining life of a battery, a device state, etc., which changes depending on the communication with the external electronic device, and thus may malfunction in the process of switch the communication method. Due to the electronic device switching the communication method being used based on communication conditions, there is a problem in that the electronic device cannot switch to a communication method as desired by the user according to the state information of the electronic device.